This invention concerns a device for detecting and correcting a user's posture. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, over fifty percent (50%) of the United States workforce suffers from repetitive stress injuries, particularly back injuries (acute, chronic, and repetitive) caused by sitting for long hours at work carrying out a variety of functions.
Individuals are often unaware of their optimal posture, and routinely settle into injurious and damaging sitting positions. The poor posture further leads to the individual slumping or inclining forward towards a desk or objects on a workbench.
The practice of extended improper sitting posture could negatively impact a person's body. Damage may include but not be limited to; organ damage, muscle degeneration, leg disorders, and extremity pains. In an effort to reduce the bodily injuries and discomforts realized from incorrect sitting posture, conventional ergonomic chair devices were created to address and alleviate the negative effects improper sitting positions have by attempting to passively support an individual's back region.
However, significant drawbacks with the conventional back supporting products are that they are static in nature or can only be manually manipulated by the user. While many of these ergonomic products have lessened the instances of bodily injury, the standard products lack adaptability and/or mobility, user interface, self-correcting capabilities, and an overall long-term feedback scheme that would interactively and continuously correct and train the user to utilize proper posture position when sitting.
In addition, many of the back supporting products are pre-molded to align with the curvature of a user's lower spine, and do little to achieve long-term optimum sitting position for the user. Further, the products fail to address the neck, upper back, and pelvic region of the back, and focus primarily on the central portions of the user's back, which can cause the spine to misalign and exacerbate neck and back injuries.
A key consideration when analyzing and correcting posture is that sitting positions are unique to each individual, and a ‘one size fits all’ approach to correcting a user's posture is not idyllic. Additionally, an individual's posture may be affected by their current mood, tiredness, and overall physical condition. As such, there is a current need for a device that takes into account an individual's current distinctive sitting position when attempting to alleviate bodily injuries.